GRIEF LED ME TO ALCOHOL | Sky Sports' Simon Thomas
4/27/202657 min
Sky Sports presenter Simon Thomas delivers one of the most raw and honest accounts of grief and addiction ever shared in the public eye. Following the sudden death of his wife, Gemma, Simon faced a years-long battle with secret drinking while navigating the pressures of public life and parenthood.
In this episode, he exposes the "release valve" of alcohol that promised an escape but led to a darker reality. Simon also shares the complexities of finding love again with his partner Doina, the crushing weight of "being strong," and the powerful realization that while life will never be the same, it can, and will, be good again.
This episode covers the following themes: Grief, Addiction, Resilience, Fatherhood, and Recovery.
Need Support?
Samaritans: Call 116 123 or visit samaritans.org
Narcotics Anonymous: na.org
Alcoholics Anonymous: alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk
Mental Health Mates: mentalhealthmates.co.uk
Shout: https: giveusashout.org
IAPT: https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/adults/nhs-talking-therapies/
Heights👉 Join Matt in getting your energy back with Vitals. 20% off here: https://highpfrmc.com/au3-OTM20
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSimon Thomas· Guest0:00
Want to know who's coming up next? Hit follow wherever you get your podcasts, and you'll be the first to find out.
Speaker 10:05
No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. He was rushed to a specialist hospital and also got diagnosed with a, a rare, but it's such an aggressive form of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia. From the Tuesday when she was diagnosed, she'd gone by the Friday. What alcohol does is it basically suspends it for a while.
Simon Thomas· Guest0:22
Yeah.
Speaker 10:23
But the problem is, when you're already in a dark place, what it does, it, like, takes you to this, the top of this horrible slide and releases you for a bit and then drops you, and you descend to an even darker place than you were before you picked up the bottle and started drinking.
Simon Thomas· Guest0:37
Yeah.
Speaker 10:37
Simon Thomas, thank you so much for coming on, mate.
Simon Thomas· Guest0:43
Pleasure. Pleasure.
Speaker 10:43
I really, really appreciate you for coming on. Sorry to start quite bleak, but I, I saw on Instagram you lost a really close friend to breast cancer recently.
Simon Thomas· Guest0:49
Yeah. About a month and a half ago.
Speaker 10:51
And I just wanna... Man, I'm so, I was so sorry to hear about that, mate. How are you doing?
Simon Thomas· Guest0:54
Yeah, I'm all right. It's just, yeah, it's just so sad, and it was so quick.
Speaker 10:58
Yeah.
Simon Thomas· Guest0:58
And Becca was 46. She was a housemate of mine when I was on Blue Peter. Lived in Battersea.
Speaker 11:04
And you lived together?
Simon Thomas· Guest1:05
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 11:06
Oh.
Simon Thomas· Guest1:06
Me and a couple of others. So I've known her for years, and it just was really quick. She'd got through breast cancer last year, and she's got a four-year-old daughter, lovely husband called Andy. And then it came about... I saw her in November at a friend's party.
Speaker 11:20
Mm.
Simon Thomas· Guest1:20
And she looked so good and healthy, and then she just said to me on the quiet, "I think I've found a lump in my neck. It's gonna get checked out next week." And four weeks later, she's gone.